Love was what bound us together after all these years,even when it seemed like the world and all its forces were trying to tear us apart.
Pancho barked happily as he ran around us in circles, his butt wiggling the entire time as though he understood exactly what Hayden was asking.
I laughed, looking down at the dog. “What do you think, Pancho? Should we stay?”
He yipped a high-pitched bark in response.
“Well, I think that settles it.” I grinned at Hayden. “We’ll stay.”
“Let’s go home, Skip.” Hayden scooped me up into his arms, carrying me toward the house, toward our future.
Resting my head in the crook of his neck, I whispered to no one in particular, “I’m already there.”
epilogue
TWO MONTHS LATER
Do Colter and Ellison always celebrate every holiday like this?” I asked as I added pink and white heart sprinkles to the top of the peanut butter cookies I made earlier.
Hayden shook his head. “No, they don’t. And now that I’m thinking about it, it’s kind of weird that they’d haveeveryonecome over for Valentine’s Day, right?”
“I feel like they’ve been acting weird.” Biting back a smile, I asked, “What do you think they’re going to announce? Oh my God, what if she’s pregnant? The last time we saw them she was sick, wasn’t she?”
“I mean, it’s also Caitlin’s birthday?” Hayden suggested, but from his tone I didn’t think he believed that reason.
“Is Cait even going to be there?”
“Probably not. Her husband is kind of…” He pursed his lips and widened his eyes, even though his gaze was trained on the floor. “We don’t like him very much.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, I gathered that from Thanksgiving.”
“Well, Nosy, are you ready to head out so we can find out what the special occasion is?” Hayden teased, throwing his arm around me as I put the cookies into a plastic container.
“Yeah, let’s do this thing.” I grinned, following him out to the pickup.
Lilac-colored cosmos bloomed in the planter boxes we’d put in at the front of the house, and a welcome mat covered in muddy paw prints decorated the front porch.
Shortly after I’d officially moved in, we moved all of my belongings from the guest room into Hayden’s. As much as he wanted to keep the room purple, we decided to paint it a pretty light blue-gray color and turn it into an office. Although Pancho still took a liking to the room and often slept in there on a fluffy purple dog bed.
Lucky and Peanut grazed in the pasture, and our brand new, upgraded horse trailer was parked in front of the barn. Since I wasn’t buying a new trailer for myself, Hayden and I agreed to put our funds together to upgrade his.
Our house had little bits of our personality woven throughout it, but our love was truly what made it a home.
“Should we get another dog?” I blurted as we pulled out of the driveway. “Or maybe some goats? A cat?”
“Whatever you want, love. We can have all the animals.”
I smirked, ruffling his hair. “You’ve always been good at taking care of things in need.”
He shook his head. “You’ve neverneededme to takecare of you, Skip. You’ve always been so strong, you just needed a little push to find your voice.”
“Are you regretting helping me find it?” I teased.
“Never.” He took my hand in his, bringing it up to his mouth to kiss my palm.
The whole gang pulled us into hugs when we walked into Colter and Ellison’s house. Isa flew in from Houston, and Juniper was back from Minnesota to visit for this special occasion.
Hayden took the container of cookies from me and set them on the kitchen counter as Isa and Juniper pulled me into their conversation, all of us making small talk.
